A/N: I must be having very boring weeks lately. Nothing much happening.

Just one quick thing though, that you may have been missing in this story. You'll note whenever Becca makes the reference 'my masters' it is sometimes in singular possessive, and sometimes plural. It's not a mistake on my part. There's a reason for that. It shows direct reference to who Becca is referring to at the time. Heudros, or the thirteen.

With that said,

As always,

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Go back and read the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before the one before this one.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR: THE ARENA

"Since each of you saw fit to refuse my offers, I give each of you still the chance to win your freedom." Heudros stated. "Voldemort was the first to refuse, therefore he shall be the first to fight."

But it was Katlin who quickly stepped forward, staring up at the group on the platform with absolute hatred in her eyes. "More of your tricks." She hissed at the man, pointing an accusing finger at Heudros. "But that's all you are. A liar. Just as all of your 'gifts' were nothing more than well packaged lies."

If Katlin's words struck any nerve in Heudros, he didn't show it by so much as raising an eyebrow.

But they found an easy mark where Katlin had actually aimed her insults.

"You will be silent!" Becca stated, mirroring Katlin's actions as she stepped forward and stared down at the woman with as menacing a stare as she could manage. "You will not insult my master so!"

"Or what?" Katlin replied in a slow, drawn out voice. "You think I fear your master, girl? Think again. I have served Voldemort, Lord of the Deatheaters, nearly all my life. I have seen power, girl. And I have seen it used. Your great master and all of his minions would do well to fear Lord Voldemort. Not try his patience with stupid games."

Becca truly looked about as angry as the group had ever seen her as she focused her attention on the woman before her. "And you would do well to fear your betters, 'girl'."

Katlin folded her arms across her chest and casually looked about the area, then turned her attention back to Becca. "Where are they?" She ask plainly. "Unless..." Katlin quickly added, not giving the woman a chance to answer, "you think to mean your master and yourself? Surely not."

The woman pulled herself back up to her full height and crossed her own arms over her own chest as she stared down at Katlin with a superior air.

Katlin gave the woman a short, dismissive laugh. "Your master? Lord Voldemort's better? I think not. A man so impotent, he can not even deal with us himself? One who has sent a pathetic guard the likes of you to try and stop us all these times? A servant who has, for each and every time her master has sent her to accomplish such a simple task, failed."

"Hold your tongue!" The woman stated. "How dare you malign my master's minions, and directly one of his highest ranked servants?! You would do well to curb that tongue of yours before you think to insult me again."

Katlin gave the woman a condescending smile. "Or you'll do what, little witch?"

"Or I will teach you."

Katlin's smile only grew that much more insulting, along with her tone. "You are welcome to try."

"Your words are a challenge." Becca stated formally as she pulled back slightly on the platform. A light instantly enveloped Katlin. A second later she stood before Becca on the platform. "You have the right to defend your statement. You are the one who issued the challenge. I, as the object of your insult, am the one who accepts it."

Katlin gave the woman a bored look. "I am not fighting for something as meaningless to me as your honor or that of your master, little witch. If you want a fight, you must make it worth my while."

"Then name your prize." Becca replied, her voice echoing her eagerness to get on with the matter.

"If I defeat you, we are free to leave this castle, all of us," Katlin emphasized, "with no further interference from you." She added, turning her attention to Heudros.

Becca seemed to pause for a moment, then turned briefly to Heudros over her shoulder. The man gave no verbal answer, but Becca seemed to get one nonetheless. "Agreed." She stated.

To Orion, watching the proceedings, Heudros and his servant had seemed so utterly confident in the outcome of the contest that neither was really overly interested in Katlin's terms.

"Bo." He called softly.

Instantly a small black cat appeared at Orion's feet, wrapping itself about them as it purred its contentment.

Orion turned briefly to the small animal that no one else seemed to take the slightest notice of. "Bo, things could get sticky here. I want you to go get ready like I told you, all right? In case I need you."

The little cat just as quickly disappeared as Orion turned back to see what Katlin was up to.

"Very well, then." Katlin had answered. "What are our weapons? Or do I get the pleasure of beating you to death with my bare hands?"

The woman gave Katlin a small, disdainful smile. "I have only one weapon." She replied. Stepping aside, she gestured to the woman standing next to Heudros. "Katrina is my choice of weapons. She will fight in my stead."

Katlin showed no opinion of the change in opponents in the least, Instead she simply slipped off her cloak and turned to hand it to her husband.

Catching hold of it, Orion quickly pulled her to him. "Katlin, what are you doing?"

Katlin turned sharply back to him. "Teaching this bastard a lesson. One I have waited more than half my life to give him."

Orion started up at his wife as she dropped the cloak into his arms. Again he could feel the hatred rolling off of her in waves.

This had nothing to do with a petty game of name calling. This was something deeply personal to her. Something she had orchestrated the entire exchange just to get a chance at.

Despite the confidence in her words, Katlin entered the arena cautiously, never taking her eyes off her opponent. She wasn't sure what the rules were, or how the fight would begin. And apparently the woman wasn't offering any explanations as she stood silently waiting.

As soon as Katlin assumed a position opposite the woman in the furthest corner of the platform, the woman pulled her wand out.

"Begin." She stated firmly, following the statement with a spell that shot directly at Katlin.

Katlin already had her wand out by the time the woman fired the spell at her. Immediately it lengthened into her most familiar fighting tool and she deftly deflected the spell with one end of the pole.

As the fight progressed, the tide turned a number of times. But it seemed that no sooner would Katlin gain the advantage than the woman would snatch it away from her again and again. As Orion watched, he likened the fight to a game of 'cat and mouse'. The woman seemed to let Katlin gain the advantage without much attention to it one way or the other, then just as effortlessly took it back, all the while letting Katlin build up her strength, only to exhaust herself again trying to hold the ground she had gained each time.

As the fight continued, it was becoming equally clear to each of the members of the group that Katlin was not holding her own as well as she had implied she would. And it was becoming more and more apparent that she was getting fatigued while the other woman appeared to hardly be straining herself at all. Something that Orion felt was the other woman's objective all along. To wear her opponent down before delivering the final strike.

"What's going on?" A voice whispered in Harry's ear.

Harry turned just in time to see that Roland had woken up and had stuck his head out of the hood of Harry's cloak. Harry never knew a snake could look so blurred eyed upon waking.

"Katlin is fighting one of the followers of the wizard." He replied. "But things don't look like they're going very well."

Roland looked over Harry's shoulder. "Oh, they wouldn't be." He replied. "That's Katrina. She is fifth in line to the master."

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing good for your friend. Those who are the first ten in line below the original thirteen under the master can draw power from him. Your friend might as well be fighting Heudros himself."

A hand suddenly reached out a grabbed Roland by the throat and yanked him out of the protective cocoon of Harry's hood.

The little snake suddenly found himself eye to eye with Voldemort.

"What are you talking about!?" He hissed at the little snake. "They're cheating?!"

"Omitting through ignorance is more like it." Roland replied. "Point being, you never ask."

"So Katlin will most likely lose the fight?"

"I wouldn't be betting on her. No." Roland replied.

Voldemort glanced up to see how things were going in the arena. Katlin had just managed to move to the side to avoid a spell while firing off one of her own that the woman easily deflected.

"Surely we can do something." Voldemort asked.

"Doubt it." Roland answered bluntly.

Another hand reached out and wrapped itself around the little snake, deftly taking him from Voldemort's grasp. If Roland thought he had been saved, he quickly changed his mind as he came face to face with one very agitated Auror.

"And you know everything there is to know about Heudros and his followers. So tell me how Katlin can beat this woman." Orion stated in a slow, even tone.

Roland swallowed with some difficulty as he stared back at the man. "I do wish you would stop putting me in these positions." He stated.

"Positions?"

"What do you think Heudros will do to me if he finds out I tipped the scales against his champion by giving you information he didn't want you to have in the first place?"

"Your previous comment sounded to me like Heudros is cheating anyway." Orion replied, his tone never changing in the least.

"I never said that. And you never heard it from m..."

Roland found himself suddenly grabbed away from the Auror by two fingers on either side of his head. But as he turned to face his new inquisitor, he found that Voldemort wasn't staring at him, but at the Unspeakable.

"Really, Mr. Black," the dark lord drawled out, "you Unspeakables are the most ineffective people at getting information I have ever had the unfortunate pleasure to be acquainted with." A small smile crept across the man's lips. "Allow me to show you how it's done."

Slowly Voldemort shifted his stare, now as hard and cold as stone, to the little snake. "Understand," he stated in a low tone that left no question to the man's feelings on the matter, "that that woman out there is far more important to me than you will ever hope to be. Therefore, if you have information that could help us help her, here are your choices; you can tell me and live, or continue to refuse, in which case you are useless to me and you will die."

"Well," Roland answered past a strained, choked voice, "your choices are certainly an improvement over Heudros'. His are usually tell him and still die."

Harry stepped over to where Voldemort was.

"Roland," he added quickly, "Katlin saved your life back when we first found you. She didn't know you. She didn't ask if we should or not. She just did. Now, she needs your help. Please, if you know something that can help her, tell us."

The snake considered Harry's words for a few seconds before turning back to Voldemort. "The kid has a better point than the two of you put together." He replied, turning briefly in turn to Orion.

"Does that mean you'll help?" Orion ask.

"It means I'll tell you this." Roland answered. "Your friend might be doing better if she didn't display her own disadvantage so clearly."

"Her disadvantage?"

"She growing tired." Roland replied. "Katrina can see that as clearly as day. While she herself hides her own injury much better."

The hand around Roland's neck tightened slightly. "Injury?" Voldemort ask in a tense, none-to-patient voice.

Roland squirmed slightly in the hold.

"He can't talk if you're choking the air out of him." Harry stated, quickly reaching out and rescuing the little snake as he carefully pried him out of Voldemort's grip and held him instead in open hands so Roland felt less threatened.

After coughing several times, the little snake turned a decidedly nasty look back to Voldemort.

"If you bothered to use your senses," Roland spit at him, "you could very clearly smell it." He bobbed his head once towards the arena. "Katrina has an injury to her left side." The little snake tasted the air with his tongue a few times. "A cut, a few days old at best. She's covering it well, but nursing it nonetheless. You can see in how she fights that she is protecting her left side diligently."

"There has to be a way to let Katlin know." Voldemort stated. "That could be just enough to give her an advantage."

Orion suddenly stood next to Voldemort, a much better advantage point to being in Katlin's sights. " I'll tell her what she needs to know."

"How?"

"Just watch." He stated quietly.

Voldemort did. He kept switching his gaze between Orion and Katlin, but for the life of him didn't see how any communication was going on at all. The only indication anything at all was amiss was that Katlin's attention seemed divided between the fight and where they were standing. But something definitely got through, since in a flash, Katlin switched her tactics, going from defense to offense and bringing the fight into closer quarters. Without giving the other woman time to figure out the new strategy and adapting an adequate defense for it, with a sudden turn, Katlin brought her pole about with lightening speed, deflecting an attempt by her opponent to land a damaging blow and slammed the end of wooden staff hard enough into Katrina's side that Harry was sure he heard something snap.

The woman went down with the first blow and didn't even attempt to get up again.

The room fell instantly silent.

Katlin stood over her with one end of the pole pointed down at her fallen opponent. Shifting part of her attention back to where Becca stood next to Heudros, she issued her terms.

"Accept defeat, little witch." she stated. "Or she dies."

Becca looked absolutely amazed at the defeat of her champion, but Heudros seemed to take the outcome of the fight in his usual stride.

As Katlin stood over the woman still, her opponent suddenly vanished in a blaze of light.

Pulling back, none of her anger seeming to have diminished in the fight, she immediately turned her attention to the two others on the platform.

"Whose next?" She ask.

Heudros stepped forward with a determined look. "There is no 'next', Ms. Griss. We had an arrangement. The terms have been met. You and your companions are free to go with no further interference."

Katlin relaxed her stance slightly, but not completely, staying partially on guard while she gave herself time to recover her overall composure. But eventually she stepped back to the edge of the platform and accepted Orion's assistance getting back down to solid ground again. Turning back to Heudros, she waited expectantly with the others as they all stood watching the man expectantly.

"Well?" Katlin ask finally, breaking the silent standoff.

"Well what?" He ask, barely hiding the smirk on his face.

"You said we were free to go." Katlin stated slowly.

Heudros held up a finger. "Actually, Ms. Griss, what was agreed upon, and I believe I quote you verbatim on this, is 'we are free to leave this castle, all of us, with no further interference from you'. And so are you free to leave. And I shall not interfere." The smirk had grown to a full smile now.

"The understanding was you would send us out of this place." Katlin replied in a low, dangerous tone.

"The understanding was I would not interfere with your leaving." Heudros replied. "And you are free to leave...if you can find your way out."

Orion stepped purposefully forward from where he had stood with one protective, if not restraining, arm around his wife's waist. The man looked as mad as any in the group had seen him to this point.

"I have had enough of your games, Heudros." He stated in a tone that bordered on threatening murder. "Bo!"

Heudros instantly pulled back, taking up a position behind his servant. "Becca!"

Instantly Becca came to the foreground, stationing herself determinately between Orion and her master.

At the same time, the boggart instantly materialized next to Orion.

Orion gave the man on the platform a positively triumphant look. "Bo." He said quietly, never once looking at the boggart beside him. "Destroy the castle."

Q&A

Elle's Bells:

I've spent my first week of summer holiday reading your stories. You do not disappoint! Update soon please ;)

Ohhhhhh! Such a worthwhile endeavor. Thank you , Dear. And I try not to disappoint my readers. Please feel free to also check out my Dresden Files entries.

MasterLupin:

Well he wouldn't die fast if stabbed in the back. Considering Harry's height if he stabbed Hudros, in order to get through the rib cadge, it would be more necessary to thrust the blade. Which would penetrate a lung, resulting in a slow painful death of drowning in your own body fluid. If the blade went in deep enough it might puncture the hart, in turn leading to slowly bleeding to death compounded with the punctured lung. Thus the death would be far from painless, or quick. I'm a med student by the way, not some deranged psychopath who would know that.
Anyway with the stage that has appeared, I think it is a duel to the death with one possibly more people of the circle we saw several chapters ago.

Well, actually, the deciding factor here would be just how deep the puncture wound was and with what sort of knife. I mean, consider if you only nicked the lung, as opposed to an actual viable wound. And it would make a considerable difference if the knife was say, a nice sharp surgical scalpel quality or something like a fish cleaning blade. Nasty tear wounds they make (purely so I've heard). But mind, if the wound was small enough not to go with too much notice, say a small puncture wound, but deep enough to get to a lung or other vital organ, and start a nice bleeder but without too much actual pain, by the time the person took notice, they would be in a bad way indeed. (One-time dental student. I could probable do a lot better with a nice murder by teeth. Rip out someone's juggler or something.)

Hmmm..., med-student. Now why am I not the least bit surprised by that? But do me a favor, Dear. Do shine above your fellow students and try to stay awake during the 'Bed-side manner' course. It seems to me in this day and age of medical care, most doctors slept right though it.

Snow Baby:

Between Katlin and Bo I am hard pressed to say which one I like more... even if they are pretty much exact opposites. :)

Can I reach through my screen and give Becca a good shake? Here she says how all powerful Heudros is but yet somehow his 'people' captured Voldemort, tortured him, locked him in a cell and Heudros never knew about it till it was all over?
Reaches in to poke Becca with a spork.
Wonderful chapter.
P.S. Sorry I am not one to usually comment on stories so I am far from the best at it. The best I got is that I liked the story well enough to do something besides lurk ;)
Cheers!!

Well now, that's one I haven't heard before. Someone placing Katlin and Bo up for favorite character role. Most people just throw their coins at Bo and be done with it. I don't get a lot of comment on Katlin for some reason. And as a character, I like her a great deal. She's nice and complicated and offers up lots of good story material. Mostly, what would happen if Voldemort ever found out that his favorite Elite was married, and to who.

True, you can't get to further ends of the personality scale than Katlin and Bo. Most prominent on the list of characteristics is the fact that Bo probably couldn't commit an honest act of violence if you spelled it out for him and gave him a cue card with instructions on it, while for Katlin it's just a problem solving tool.

Man! And people call poor Becca gullible? Dear! You honestly believed the man?! So sorry, no. No poking allowed on this one. (Fends off spork.)

Well, this story has some 23,000 hits, Dear, but only some 300 reviews. Who am I to criticize someone who takes the time to be kind enough to review? And such a nice review it was. Thank you. I am honored you decided not to just 'lurk' in my story's case.

Silverfox:

That's the result of all Heudros' studying of his opponents? Pathetic. He ought to at the very least have figured out that Voldemoer won't follow him by now. And was that a: "Please let me take all your power and go home." I heard him say to Orion?

Why wouldn't he think that? He thought Harry would give up Voldemort, as well as Arabella, and that Lupin and Katlin would take his offers as well. And last but not least, he was just as confident Orion would give up his friend without a thought. It speaks volumes for the man and how he views relationships.

You know, Fox, I'm well aware there was a certain note of sarcasm in that last comment, but I wonder, do you realize just how close you are to the truth there? Minus the 'please'. First of all in what Heudros is really up to and secondly, who his real target in all of this is.

skahducky:

What was the point of those offers? Heudros must have known that they were unlikely to accept. Even if he has the power to do such things (which I doubt he does), then the group clearly doesn't trust him enough to believe he does. What's up with the stage?
On a slightly off topic note, has Orion ever seen Katlin without her glamour on?
Anyway, this is a great chapter. Please update soon!

The point of the offers? To get rid of Harry and the others.

Did Heudros know the members were each unlikely to accept them? No. In fact, he was counting on it for a lot of reasons. Number one on his list, if the others accepted, Orion would too.

And consider what was he offering them. The thing he thought they each most wanted, the way he saw things. Heudros was studying each of them. His only problem was he didn't do a very thorough job of it. He simply took the easy way around, placed each person's highest value on some personal, physically obtainable thing, and went with that. He never considered the moral values of each person he made the offer to, if he thought they had any at all. (Hard to see in others what you lack in yourself sometimes.)

Does Heudros have the power to make good on those offers? Welllll..., sort of. Let me put it this way; he believes he does. Does that mean he actually does? That's hard to say, since the limits of Heudros' 'abilities' have never been actually tested. Will they ever be? In a manner of speaking, yes. The problem is, your looking down a very deep well without a flashlight thinking, 'hmmmm..., I wonder how deep this thing is?' You could throw a stone down it and listen to see if it hits bottom, but you're taking a risk in that it may be so far down to the bottom you'd never hear the stone hit the bottom, and then you've lost your stone in the process.

The point is, yes, you could find out. But there's a tremendous amount of danger in doing so, and in the end, you're probably going to come out it worse off than you went in.

Now, does the group trust him? On different levels, yes and no. Do they trust he'll give them what he promises? No. Do they trust that he can deliver what he promises? Most of them, sort of...but their skeptical. One member of the group, however, believes that Heudros can truly deliver what he offers each of them. And that is Orion.

I do love this last question.

Yup. Enemies, Chapter Forty-Nine C (by my chapter count, not FFN's). Orion was pushing for Katlin to marry him and she pushed back the only way she knew how. She believed if he ever saw her the way she truly is, he would never want her as his wife. She wanted to try and dissuade him, but she also wanted to be honest with him.

However, the reason I love this question so much is it gives me a chance to point something out I think is a fairly common misconception. What Katlin wears is a bit more than your standard Glamour spell. Think of it more as a Glamour spell with a kick. Katlin was very badly burned in the fire that destroyed her home. So badly that her body was nearly 100 per cent burned. Few people even survive such a trauma. And without Voldemort's help and her own natural healing abilities, she likely wouldn't have. What Voldemort did for her was to fashion a spell, built off of a Glamour spell, that doesn't just conceal her physical appearance, but physically alters it. When Katlin changes her appearance, she isn't just putting up an illusion, or even just making a real, physical change (depending on your view of what a Glamour spell does). It goes much deeper than that. She is physically becoming what you see, inside and out. When in her real state, Katlin is barely able to do much of anything. She can't walk, she has no ability to use her hands, she can hardly speak, she can barely see, and she's in incredible, constant pain. With the spell in place, she's the picture of health (with one small exception, also pointed out in Enemies by Aaron Richards).

Now, granted, such a powerful spell should be easy to pick up on. But over the years Katlin has learned how to work with the spell. She can dampen it's 'aura' until only the most sensitive people can feel it. This is the reason no one else at Lawrence Oliver's party in Enemies noticed the spell but the aged Auror himself, and why the only other person ever to pick up on it...was Bo.

Blanca Rosa:

Hello! I loved this chapter since it cleared up a lot of things. However, why hasn't Katlin metioned that Charly is the spy? If I recall when Voldemort originally calls her to where they are in a cage, the man she seduces mentions Charly. Was she too occupied to put any attention to the name? Just curious Bye!

WOW! Someone was paying attention back then!

There are several reasons for the deletion of that piece of information on Katlin's part. The most prominent one being; how many people in England do you think are named 'Charly'? So, did she notice the name? Yes. Did she think much of it 'at the time'? No. Also, even if she was suspicious about the mention of the name, Charly is Orion's best friend. Why would she think for a minute he betrayed not only his best friend, but his job, his department, his fellow agents, and the opportunity to be a card carrying wizard? For what? To kiss someone else's asterisk? Small pay off.

So at this point, no, she is no even the least bit suspicious.

ilovesiriusblack:

I definately don't think that it is good news that family ties is going to be a short story, I really love reading them! Ok back to the story at hand, wow Heudros is offering a lot! Is he basically making this up or is he really that powerful? If he is that powerful I'm thinking Orion may get his butt kicked, either that or he has been holding out on the rest of the group. Also can you refresh my memmory on what secret Harry is acctually keeping because I think i'm getting confused. I have one question regarding your response to Master Lupin, 'Who's doing was it to take them to the castle? and why didn't Heudros kick them out straight away if he didn't want them there?' Ok so that is technically 2 questions but please don't hold that against me, as ever awesome chapter and looking forward to the next one.

Well, I'm glad someone is disappointed, Dear.

For the answer to that first question, go see Skahducky's answer. I'm really not up to typing that all again, Dear. Have mercy.

OK, to the second part, let me point out a few things. Is Orion going to get his butt kicked? I can't answer that. It's a large part of the story.

Has he been holding out on the group? Of course he has! There is no way in heaven Orion is going to 'show off' in front of Voldemort the actual amount of power he can yield. If he did, Voldemort would most likely immediately begin spending a large portion of his free time trying to figure out new and interesting ways to separate Mr. Black from his favorite boggart.

Harry's 'secret' is simply to act as sort of a gate to Heudros. Technically, he's not a 'secretkeeper' in the truest sense of the word. But he serves something of the same general function. Without Harry, no one could find Heudros unless Heudros himself wanted them to. It's like the summary to this story says; 'What if Harry wasn't the one who could destroy Voldemort, but was the key to the person who could?' And that's just what he is, a key.

Ohhhhh...I would never hold that against you, Dear. Mostly because they are both very good questions. But complicated ones as well. I'll try to answer them without giving too much of the story away.

Now, who's doing was it to take them to the castle? Two questions there, really. One, who wanted them at the castle? Well, sort of Heudros, to a point. He wanted them somewhere he could control them better.

Now, second question, who actually 'brought' them to the castle? Becca.

Why didn't Heudros kick them out straight away if he didn't want them there? Because once they were there, he decided the damage was done and it was as good a place as any to hold them while he decided what to do with them.

CelticHeiressFiona:

Great chapter.

Thank you, Dear.

All reviews are as of 05/26/2007.

And remember;

My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance.